The Christmas Stocking

A long, long time ago when I was just a youngun my amazing mother, who had six children, hand made Christmas stockings for all of us. They were beautiful and I can't imagine how long it took her to do them. I don't even know if she did them all at once, but it still amazes me. When we moved from Utah to Arizona back in 1984 three of the stockings, belonging to us three younguns, got lost in the move. It was SO sad because we all loved those stockings, they were all different and full of sparkles :) I'm glad that there are still three in existence.

Ignore the beautiful children at the forefront of these pictures (if you can) and take a gander at the stockings hanging from the mantle in the background. In the first picture there is mine, and I think Jenny's and possibly Aly's?


Mine is there on the left, next to John's in this picture.



When we were mostly grown up Aly got the crazy idea to make one for mom, then after she had Jaxson, she made him one as well. The funny thing about Jaxson's is that she didn't realize she had bought an extra large one and it took her FOREVER to finish it! I remember spending the weeks before two Christmases helping her work on it.

So after I had Mallina my mom called me up and asked me which stocking she should buy for her. I was kind of surprised considering Julie and Kristie never ventured into stocking making, it was just crazy Aly, so why should I be expected to do it too? But nevertheless the stocking came and I had it finished by Mallina's second Christmas. Here is my masterpiece:

Her crooked name will always crack me up. I do have an art degree but I find that I obsess over the imperfections of my handiwork, but I am trying to get over that and enjoy these stockings. So last year mom sent over a pattern for Eva's stocking. It was beautiful in the picture on the internet. It is a Mary Engelbreit design. I should have known better. It is so full of intricate embroidery that I am going insane. Mallina's stocking has so many cute and EASY sparkles on it and while it was still hard to do, I'm glad I did that one first instead of Eva's, otherwise all of my other children would be complaining that Mallina was the only one special enough to have mommy make her a stocking. So here is what I am spending my free time doing:

Yes, I realize Santa is headless, I'm still working on it. This is what the end product is supposed to look like:
I figure if I have hers done by her second Christmas, it will be all fair. But, yeah, that's in SIX days! This is definitely a labor of love and I have come to realize how much time and effort my mom must have put in to making SIX of these stockings. Thank you mom! I am so happy that you have helped me to carry on your tradition with my family. Some day I may even make one for myself and Ieli. There is this awesome sugar plum fairy design that is calling my name!